{"id":7679,"date":"2006-06-14T10:14:30","date_gmt":"2006-06-14T14:14:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=7679"},"modified":"2006-06-14T10:14:30","modified_gmt":"2006-06-14T14:14:30","slug":"the-pharisee-effect-in-alabama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/the-pharisee-effect-in-alabama\/","title":{"rendered":"The ‘Pharisee effect’ in Alabama"},"content":{"rendered":"

I noted<\/a> a couple of weeks ago that a series of far-right candidates were seeking statewide office in [tag]Alabama[\/tag], all of whom believe that the states are not bound by U.S. Supreme Court precedents or the Bill of Rights. I’m pleased to report that all of these candidates lost in the state’s primary races last week. It’s worth taking a moment to consider why.<\/p>\n

In fact, Alabamians dealt a series of blows to the most radical GOP candidates on the ballot. Roy Moore only managed 33% support in his gubernatorial campaign, and all of his like-minded cohorts were defeated in state judicial races. Did conservative Alabama [tag]voters[\/tag] suddenly shift to the center? Not at all. The same day Moore and other theocrats lost, 81% of state voters approved a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.<\/p>\n

So what happened? One local journalist wrote an item (brought to my attention by reader J.C.) explaining that the far-right candidates may have stumbled because of “the [tag]Pharisee[\/tag] effect<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Moore and his slate got hit with “the Pharisee effect,” said Larry Powell, a longtime pollster who had correctly predicted the outcome of Tuesday’s primary.<\/p>\n

Powell said many voters became tired of [tag]Moore[\/tag] constantly talking about religion and began to suspect he was using the issue for his own advancement.<\/p>\n

Powell, who teaches communications at The University of Alabama at Birmingham, sees no conflict between Bible Belt voters defeating candidates on the religious right and passing a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages.<\/p>\n

“The values concept is still there, but they are highly suspicious of someone who uses it for their own ambitions,” he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You don’t say. Voters, even in a state like Alabama where the religious right is extremely influential, have grown apprehensive about candidates who seek public office on a religious platform and who would rather talk about theology than public policy.<\/p>\n

I wonder if Ralph Reed noticed these results?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I noted a couple of weeks ago that a series of far-right candidates were seeking statewide office in [tag]Alabama[\/tag], all of whom believe that the states are not bound by U.S. Supreme Court precedents or the Bill of Rights. I’m pleased to report that all of these candidates lost in the state’s primary races last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7679\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}